Friday 25 September 2009 19.05 EDT
First published on Friday 25 September 2009 19.05 EDT

Film scholars are divided on the significance of Star Wars. Will Brooker, argues that it is not a "straightforward, simplistic morality tale and fairy story" but full of "complex ambiguities and internal contradictions". Superficially it may be an old-fashioned story about the battle between good and evil, but part of the film's complexity is George Lucas "rooting for both sides". Lucas himself is a complex figure, an experimental film-maker ("my goals were to make bizarre abstract movies") who decided to create a Hollywood blockbuster. But as well as a homage to westerns and war movies, Brooker expertly shows how the film draws on a surprisingly wide range of avant garde influences, from Eisenstein and Kurosawa to the French New Wave. According to Brooker, while filming Star Wars, Lucas went over to the dark side, becoming a "distant, cold and fearsome disciplinarian". What makes Star Wars such a great film is Lucas's inner battle with "his own conflicting desires for human community and solitude, order and creativity, discipline and play".